Types of characters

Types of characters

• 1.
  Types of Characters Literatureand Film Unit 6
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  The element ofcharacter ●Characters, an essential element of film narrative, play a functional role in the plot. But at their best characters don’t have merely a technical function. We go to the movies to witness stories about characters whom we can imagine as real people, with complex personalities and lives. ●So when we talk about characters in movies, we consider them both as beings who have traits, habits, and dispositions and as formal elements in the narrative. ●Character can be revealed through the character's actions, speech, and appearance. It also can be revealed by the comments of other characters, and in film, by sound and camera angles
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  Flat and Round Oneway to discuss characters is in terms of the complexity of their traits. English novelist and literary theorist E.M. Forster said that there are two kinds of characters: round and flat. ●Flat characters are one dimensional and predictable. ●Round characters are three-dimensional with many traits even contradictory ones. They are unpredictable, complex and capable of surprising us in a convincing way.
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  Character development affectsthe quality of the story: ●Character development is showing the multitude of traits and behaviors that give the literary character the complexity of a human being. ●A flat character is not fully developed; we know only one side of the character. ●A round character is fully-developed, with many traits--bad and good- -shown in the story. We feel that we know the character so well that he or she has become a real person. ●Character development is a continuum with perfectly flat characters at one end and very round ones at the other. Every character lies somewhere on this continuum. Round characters are usually considered an indication of literary quality. However, characters in folktales are almost always flat, and flatness is appropriate for minor characters literature for children and in films. A character foil is often flat, even if the protagonist is round.
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  Jack Nicholson asJack Torrance in The Shining Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs: two psychopaths portrayed by two great actors in two terrifying movies. Can you tell, just by looking at them, which of these characters is round and which is flat? In fact, you can’t. To judge their dimensionality, you need to see the character in action and understand their motives—to know which one embodies relentless evil (therefore, flat) and which one follows the twists of his own diabolical intelligence (therefore, round). Round and flat characters may be equally interesting, but they serve different dramatic, narrative, ends.
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  Major and minor Wealso distinguish between major and minor characters which signal the relative importance of the character to the narrative. Major Characters make the most things happen or have the most things happen to them in the story. Plots depend on conflict, so major characters are often called protagonists signifying “heroes” who “win” the conflict and antagonists, those characters whose values or behavior are in conflict with those of the protagonist. Minor Characters are the supporting characters, functioning usually as a means to move the plot along or of fleshing out the motivations of the major characters
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  ●Minor characters canserve as witnesses, i.e. someone reporting on the events though not directly involved thus achieving something of an objective report. Witnesses
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  ●Another function ofa minor character can be that of confidant, i.e. a close friend of the protagonist to whom he or she can confide in and thus disclose his or her innermost thoughts. Confidants
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  Foil Characters An importantfunction of minor characters is to serve as foil- characters. A foil character is either one who is opposite to the main character or nearly the same as the main character. The purpose of the foil character is to emphasize the traits of the main character by contrast, and perhaps by setting up situations in which the protagonist can show his or her character traits. A foil is a secondary character who contrasts with a major character but, in so doing, highlights various facets of the main character's personality. A foil's role, as a contrast to the hero, may be emphasized by adding physical contrasts.
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  Famous Foils ●In Hamlet,Laertes and Fortinbras, whose fathers have been killed, are foils for Hamlet. ●In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Svidrigailov is a foil to Raskolnikov, as are Sonya, Luzhin, Razumihin, and Marmeladov, arguably. ●There is Han Solo in Star Wars, who, in the first film of the series, stands in stark contrast to Luke Skywalker ●In The "Harry Potter" series of books, Ron Weasley is a foil to Harry Potter
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  Stereotypes A stereotype isa character who possesses expected traits of a group rather than being an individual. Using stereotypes is usually considered an indication of poor quality, especially in cases such as members of minority groups, people with disabilities, or women. However, stereotypes can be useful in furthering the story
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  The amount ofchange in a character over the course of the story also affects its quality A static character is one who does not experience a basic character change during the course of the story. A dynamic character is one who experiences a basic change in character through the events of the story. This change is internal and may be sudden, but the events of the plot should make it seem inevitable.
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  The continuum ofcharacter change There is also a continuum of character change in a story, with very static characters at one end, and very dynamic ones at the other. Every character lies somewhere on this continuum. Dynamism in the protagonist is usually considered an indication of quality, but many characters, especially in films, have only the mild amount of change. A character may thus be round and dynamic, round and static, or flat and static. A flat character cannot usually be dynamic, because you do not know enough about the flat character to notice a change. If a character seems flat and yet seems to change, it is usually because the characterization is not well written.
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  Character Arcs ●The processof transformation that characters, usually round, dynamic characters, undergo in a film is called their character arc. ●For more details about the character arcs and how it drives the plot see the Character Arc Powerpoint in this unit.